Official Launch - 21 Futures: Tales from the Timechain

A lot of hats there. Yeah, thanks, thanks, Phil. Niko here, Shadow We Super publisher and the publisher of this magnificent book. Did a little bit of editing there as well, curated the stories with Phil here, who is the father of the idea of the whole 21 Futures anthology a year ago, almost to the date. So it's been a sort of a long year, but also at the same time short. And at the end of it, I can't believe I'm finally holding this very real book of these amazing stories and couldn't be more excited to hear the feedback from you, dear readers or watchers or whoever is seeing the stream.

Yeah, I mean, it's been a long road, it feels like, to get here, but in terms of publishing, and I've worked with other publishers as well, and things take a long time because there's so much work that goes into putting out a, like, top quality book like this. But really, we've managed to do it in, in a year, which I think is pretty good going for— from the initial idea and putting the call out in December last year, here we are, like, delivering copies all around the world by Um, by Christmas 2023. So it's, it's, it's been a lot of work, and so many people have been involved in this. So first of all, anyone out there who has been involved in the book— authors, editors, everyone else involved at Consensus who's contributed to this— thank you. And yeah, it's been a great project to sort of be at the helm of. I've really enjoyed it, and it's only been marginally stressful, right, Niko?

It's— I'm not gonna lie, it's been an extremely stressful year for me. I've been completely consumed and obsessed by this project, as many probably know, that I've been working with. But it's all been worth it. Like, I'm still kind of like PTSD'd by the whole process. It was really, really fast and really overwhelming. I mean, we got more than 50 submissions. Going through those alone and choosing the best ones before we started editing was already a daunting task, and I can't believe that we made it. And all of the authors who are included have been super, super excited and willing to develop their stories to the best versions that they can possibly be. In collaboration with us. It's just been an amazing experience all around, and to see this diverse diversity of different non-native English authors writing these amazing English stories and about Bitcoin fiction nonetheless, which is not a really well-explored area. I want to say. It's just everything about the project I love. Just the artwork that we did with Phil as well complement the book pretty nicely. And yeah, from the COVID art to the chapter art, maybe I can show you some here. I mean, a lot of work went into this, like making it look like it does.

Yeah, and I'm really proud of it. That's one of the things that makes it, you know, not your average book. It's not your average anthology. And another thing you touched on is authors from so many different places. I think we counted and we've got over 10 nationalities and over 10 languages as well, first languages of authors, which is, you know, mind-blowing, unreal, and amazing that people um, could translate and can write to such a high standard in English. It's been really rewarding working with people from around the world. And speaking of some of our authors, let's bring in, uh, some of them. I think we've got a few waiting in the wings, so, uh, we'll be checking in with a couple of authors at a time and just saying hi, having a quick chat, and, uh, yeah, trying not to chat to everyone at once because there's 21 of us, so it might get a bit crowded and, uh, the streaming software doesn't always like that. So let's chat first to Alex Gurevich, uh, and Eduardo Prospero. Uh, Alex, great, welcome along.

Hello, hello everybody.

Uh, Eduardo, I hope you're you're there. I don't see your, your picture, but if you're just, um, on audio, give us a shout. Okay, Eduardo is either muted or having audio problems, but, um, maybe we can bring in another one of our authors. And Eduardo, just let us know when you're ready. Uh, let's bring in Technology Culture.

Hello.

Welcome along. We can't hear you, Technology Culture. I think you're muted or— ah, we can hear you now.

It should definitely be better.

Great. All right. Well, hello to you both. Thanks for coming along. Why don't you introduce yourselves and tell us briefly about the story you wrote in the book? Alex.

Hello. So first, I am very honored to be part of this project and to actually start the dialogue. As you mentioned, it's not a regular anthology in a sense that I've seen so much interaction between authors and between— with Niko and Philip and just all this continuous work going on. It was very exciting and all the energy behind it and all their enthusiasm. So I just want to mark that it was very rewarding. I am a money manager, so my interest in Bitcoin started in a financial way, but I'm also a writer and I've written some fiction stories before. So for me, this project was just a perfect merger. I had interest both when a friend of mine pointed out to me, hey, look at this submission call. I'm like, I gotta write for that. there is no choice. So for me, it was exciting, and I wanted to address, in my story, I wanted to address kind of what I'm most worried about in the future, and what most concerns me, and what most I'm thinking about the immediate future, because there is a lot of existential threats that are somewhere out there. But I wanted to address this idea of the loss of digital trust. The idea that we don't really know where any of our emails are coming from, where is any of our information is going, who are we talking to. This AI can even replicate our friends and just look like our friends talking to us on Zoom. So all of those things that were concerning me, and I wanted to build a real human story around it. So that was really my goal, and I wanted to see— and Bitcoin plays out very natural in that world as a way to deal both— both exacerbate the fear of the loss of digital trust, but also the way to deal with the loss of digital trust. So that was kind of the origin of my thinking to be part of it.

That's great. It's been another, you know, diverse aspect of this book is, you know, the backgrounds of everyone, sort of what jobs they do and what fields they work in. And It's good to have a financial perspective because many people might associate that with Bitcoin, but we have a lot of technological people too. Great, thanks for the intro. And yeah, Niko just showed your story, Are We or Are We Not, with some great artwork there.

Thank you very much for creating all this artwork. I think some of the authors are working on this. themselves, but this is all the work of your team in this case.

Yeah, it's really nice addition, I think. Um, great. All right, well, um, we'll come back to you in a second, uh, Alex, but, uh, let's check in. Technology Culture, tell us about your story and, um, your background here.

Yes, nice. Um, I'm still, I'm still looking forward to receiving the book and It must be on its way, and I can't wait really. Thanks for showing the artwork. Also, from me, many thanks for going through all the trouble. And as the artwork already showed, my story takes place on Mars. And science fiction has been basically my genre since my teenage. And I really never let go of it, but there's so many different flavors of it, which makes makes it all the more fascinating. But it's like the hard and the social sci-fi that really captures me the most. That is the— it's also the kind of sci-fi that usually ages best over time because the human condition that is explored in these ventures usually doesn't change as easily. And so when I found out that there is an anthology about Bitcoin and how it will it might play out or how it will affect everybody or the future of mankind in general, I just couldn't resist. I had to like extrapolate and spin ideas together. And obviously I mentioned on several occasions that it is also based on a really awesome article that I read already in 2019. Which is Druf Banzar's Bitcoin Astronomy, and it really is pure gold. So for anybody who is really interested in physics and interplanetary communications and really consequent treatment of a great idea and its limitations and possibilities, I can only recommend it. And I think he even mentioned in the article that he would love for people to pick this up and just make it into fiction. And so this one has been on my mind for quite a while, and this was the perfect opportunity to actually go ahead.

That's great. Um, sorry, I'm trying to just check in who is waiting in the wings, uh, there. But yeah, a great, um, sort of background of your interest in sci-fi, and I know that's, um, That's something you're interested in too, right, Alex?

Yes, definitely. I actually— this introduction got me very excited about reading this. You know, the interesting thing is that we still are waiting. We're just about to receive our books, so we still have all these teasers and semi-spoilers, but we— I'm still waiting to see the whole book, and I'm very excited about it from all this, all the little things. So this is a great teaser, I think. And I also really like what you said about kind of the human stories, that humans can stay the same, but they just experience different conditions. So it's very important in fiction to have an actual real human story. Because you can just put together any kind of technological conjectures, but it does not hold unless you have a character with a problem and some kind of plot going on around them.

Yeah, for sure. I said this in my podcasts with you both, I think, as well. But it's It's tough in short fiction to introduce a new world or a new future in such a short amount of time. But what is going to crush the reader's ambitions to continue reading is if there's no action, if there's no character to root for, if there's no problem to overcome. So we've got to get straight to the action, really. Building the world is just, you know, in small pieces as we go along, which is, you know, kind of different from movies, from novels. And yeah, I've been reading a bit more sci-fi of late for sure.

Yeah, I think a lot of the authors started with just a simple idea and built from there. And the whole idea that, at least in my opinion, for the anthology was to kind of crack open these windows to alternate futures that you can then discover these worlds and keep working on them. It's not like we have these worlds figured out already. I certainly don't. But it was a nice process writing them, writing the story and trying to figure out what that world might look like. And this is our first attempt, the first volume. I'm pretty sure that there's going to be a second volume and any of these stories I think I'm pretty sure that some of them are going to have their life of their own and, and can keep expanding on those, those windows of alternate futures.

Yeah, I think, you know, normally in anthologies which are themed, authors are sort of thinking, how can I approach this and how can I create something unique? But with this anthology, people already had ideas semi-formed, or like, I want to write about this, or I want to expose this idea and frame it with fiction. Was that the way it happened for both of you guys?

I would say yes, for me, yes. I had a very specific idea already in my head, and I, when the anthology came up, I was like, oh, I can— that's why it was very easy. I wrote very fast. The editing was a very meticulous process, as Niko has mentioned, right? But writing for me was very fast because I already had an idea and all I had to do is just set a character in motion. Basically, I had to say like, okay, here is this person and that's what they need to do.

Yeah, that's great. Technology Culture, you, was it a fully formed idea?

Yeah, the idea was kind of preformed, but ideas come a dime a dozen, of course. And I have like really notebooks full of handwritten notes and ideas galore. But usually I really need something to focus on, like a project to participate in that's really worthwhile to actually get this going. Because usually I'm I mean, I'm generally busy, and considering writing my hobby, very often it falls a little bit to the sidelines. But when there's really something worthwhile to pursue, and like a first of the kind of the 21 Futures Anthology, is an opportunity you cannot let pass by. So you really just put yourself Together properly and with all the help you guys extended to us, it actually came to pass. I also have to make a shout out to my wife because she also has a pretty important management role in my life when it comes to these things. So yeah, she has actually been instrumental in developing the storyline as well because we basically discussed the whole setup while we were taking a walk through the woods. So this is, this is how the story actually became, yeah, a proper plot with personalities in it. This is how it all came to pass.

Yeah, good to know you weren't taking a walk on Mars, that you're going through the woods. Alex, is there anyone you want to thank, shout out, and yeah, get ready to tell people where they can find you online because we have some other authors waiting in the wings that we want to speak to.

Well, first of all, everyone— every story I write is kind of a community effort because I have this friend— I have writing friends and writing community that I work on always, and I think The first thanks I want to give to Mary Salome, who is my writing partner. We meet like once a week for a few hours in a coffee shop to write, and she was present when I was writing the story and was my first critiquer. And also, I want to give some thanks to Melanie Jordan, who is my colleague and personal copy editor and assistant on many other things, who helped me to make it all happen. Of course, there's a whole bunch of other people I would like to thank, but those are the ones I will give my first thanks to. And just in general, my writing community, people who are around me and with inspiration. To find me, the best way to find me is on X, A. Gorevich, like my first initial, Gorevich23. And I have a verified account. You'll find from there links to anything, to my business, to my publications, to anything you want to find out about me.

Great. Thanks so much for joining us.

Thank you for this opportunity.

Yeah. Shout out to writing circles, groups, and everyone helping each other out. Yeah. And Technology Culture, where can people find you online? Where would you like to send people?

I'm also on X, as like most everybody, but I also have a slightly underdeveloped personal homepage that I try to fill with more and more writings. And I would actually like to put up a short, like, description, a couple of bullet points, and maybe, maybe a drawing or something that would explain a little bit how Grubby Ball, sports I invented for the story actually works. So to just explore a little bit the, let's say, the visuals of the whole setup and the physics that are behind it, because it's only like very roughly mentioned in the story itself. But yeah, the homepage itself would be— I'm gonna pronounce it in German like it's like it's supposed to be. It's called technologiekultur.info. So technologiekultur.info. Yeah, just make sure that you write culture with a K and without the E in the end, and technology doesn't have a Y, but it has an I and an E at the end. So you just have to look up. My, uh, my handle either on X or, uh, follow the links that will be provided and you'll definitely find it. And bear with me, I will see that I can put up some more content on there. Oh, I also have a couple of Bitcoin, uh, articles out in the world, uh, for other outlets. Uh, you might, for example, look at coinbeast.com. I have 3 articles up there. that I myself actually am very proud of, that kind of helped me explore the technology of Bitcoin deeper. And I tried to package it up in like an entertaining form. So yeah, that's the most important one. And also one a little bit older article on Citadel21. But that actually, that has an actual mistake in it. That, and everybody who finds it is welcome to ping me and point it out. It has a technical mistake in it, and I'm curious who's gonna find it.

Another treasure hunt. We've got a few kind of treasure hunt stories and themes in our book. So great. Thank you so much for coming on to the launch. Both Alex and Technologie Kultur. I've been saying it in the English way, sorry. Exactly. Yeah, well, I should mention we're sharing it on the screen now. Of course, go to bitcoinbook.shop to buy the book, 21 Futures. We ship everywhere. And if you want to find out more, a little bit more about the project and learn at some of the artwork and, um, the, the trailer, you can go to 21futures.com, uh, which has a link to buy the book too. So yeah, thank you very much guys for coming on the show. We're going to speak to the real Bitcoin Dog now coming on. So have a great rest of your day and congrats for being in the book. Let's just shout about it. Let's tell everyone and sell thousands of copies.

Thank you for having us.

Keep it up, guys.

Catch you around.

Yeah, so anybody who's watching or not watching, you can actually get this book now by going to bitcoinbook.shop or even Amazon. We haven't really advertised that yet, but you can in fact get this from Amazon everywhere that Amazon delivers. you can get this wonderful book. And we start to see people receiving their first pre-orders already, which is always nice. We actually got our first really good review published on Bitcoin Magazine. So definitely check that out from our Twitter profile. And as Phil earlier mentioned, we're going to give 5 of these away during the stream, not necessarily during the stream. I mean, if you don't make it to the stream, you can still participate. All you have to do is follow us on Twitter or X. That's Consensus N, Consensus with a K. That's our profile. And then find the tweet where we announced the stream and retweet that. It will turn later into the video link so you can watch this afterwards. You don't have to watch it live. And we'll give you time until Christmas. So, uh, 5 of these, all you have to do is follow us, retweet, and you're in. And we'll, we'll pick 5 random winners by Christmas. So that's one way to get the book, or you can just go to the shop and order it and pay with Lightning Bitcoin, of course.

That's great. Yeah. Um, follow, make sure you're following YouTube, X of ConsenSys Network, and you'll find all the, all the stuff there. And I highly recommend getting a physical copy because there is really nothing like a physical book. It's a beautiful thing, and especially because we've got this artwork in the book. So I recommend that. But for some of the people watching, Niko, who might want a digital copy of the book, are there plans for an ebook? What's the latest on that?

Yes, there will be an ebook. The release date is still unconfirmed. It might be after Christmas. It will definitely be after Christmas. But I don't know how much after Christmas. Maybe, maybe right after Christmas, or maybe in January. Certainly in January the latest. But it's, it's in the works. And one reason why it takes a little bit longer is because we want to make the artwork color in the, in the ebook version. So that will be the first time that you'll be able to read the book in color. And of course, we're going to work on the paper version of the color book as well. But to make that happen, we need those orders. So go and buy this, uh, first version so we can fund the next version, and, and then you can get the, the real deal with the color art, which is really just, uh, the proper justice to it.

That's great. We're gonna, uh, give you all the details of that giveaway again and talk more about the future of 21 Futures after we bring in our next author. The real Bitcoin Dog. I hope you're ready to come on screen. He's out and about, I think. Will Schalkopf. All right.

Hey, Will. Hey, can you guys hear me?

Yeah, we can hear you fine. Okay, keep your eyes on the road.

I'm driving right now. Yeah, I'm driving right now. The car's driving, so I'll just wave in my camera and then I'll turn the camera off. So, but yeah, I just want to at least quickly wave. So, yep. But yeah, I can talk while I drive.

So. Got it. Where are you off to?

Uh, I, I'm here in sunny Southern California, uh, where, uh, the weather is fantastic, and I'm off to go see Santa. So I've got my daughter with me in the car, and my wife is Well, and, uh, yeah, we're driving, uh, somewhere special, um, to see like, you know, one of the special Santas here in Southern California. So yeah, making it work, the family life and the Bitcoin, uh, 21 Future life all at once. So

you really are, you know, juggling many responsibilities, podcasting dad. Uh,

also like, I'll skip the Alex or Technologie Kultur saying they're busy, like Hey, we're all busy. Let's do it. Let's go. Hyperbitcoinization can't wait. So—

That's right. It's one of my bugbears, actually, the word busy. So people just use it as such a crutch. Like, how are you? All busy. I've been busy. Everyone can say that, right? But I mean, we have to choose things not to do in order to do what we want. So, um, thanks for making time for this. And Niko was showing a bit of your story there. Who let the Bitcoin dogs out? With some fun artwork.

Come on, Philip, you got it.

Yeah, you want me to do the Baja Men? Who let the Bitcoin dogs out?

I want it. I want— look, if we're going to promote it, if we're going to do the launch, you got to sell it, Philip. Come on.

All right. Well, we need the call and response then. Who let the Bitcoin dogs out? There's a bit of a delay on the line. Maybe it needs a different— maybe it needs a different tune. Maybe we can, um, does anyone watching, you know, know anyone in the Baja Men? Maybe we can get some connections going on. Maybe they're big Bitcoiners.

That's the best future.

Yeah, soca Bitcoin music. Yeah, tell us a little bit about your story. How did the idea come about and why did you choose to write a more fun caper than some of the more dystopian or sci-fi-based stories that we've had in 21 Futures? Uh, we can still hear you, William.

Yeah, I know I'm dropping in.

Yep.

Yeah, no, definitely, uh, for my future, like we talked about on our podcast, uh, Niko, um, really imagining a future, uh, as if nation-states really did a hash force, um, for a lot of reasons, uh, that we know it's not practical to actually do that. Um, but yeah, having fun making a spy thriller caper for the story.

We've got something going on in the back of Will's car. Judy calls. Yeah, well, I mean, maybe we can— Will, are you back?

Yeah, hopefully we'll see. You know, the other joke is like I'm calling you from The Matrix, from the Noidrai. No droid saga matrix. I just need to have power for where I'm driving. No,

Will's audio is breaking up a bit.

Yeah, we're already getting censored.

Could be. You mentioned the Matrix and, you know, suddenly the stream starts, starts cutting out. Will, we'll keep you on. Just, um, keep shouting about those Bitcoin dogs and, uh, when your audio cuts back in, we'll hear you. Um, yeah, just to, to give everyone a bit of background on what Will's Story is about. It's a sort of yeah, I would describe it as a caper. It's a humorous tale of you know a U.S. and oh great, we've got another author joining us. I'll bring you in in a minute, Satillionaire. Yeah, sorry, just getting back to Will's story. It's a fun caper about U.S. and U.K. Spy team or a hash force team who have been pitted against the evil French president. And there's dogs involved, of course. There's a lot of dogs in peril and moving parts in this. I don't know what I could compare it to, but if you are into, yeah, more fun take on Bitcoin futures, then that's, uh, check out Will's story, Who Let the Bitcoin Dogs Out. Uh, great, Sati, I hope you're ready. We're gonna bring you on. Um, Sati Lienaar, another one of the authors featured in 21 Futures. Welcome, Sati. How are you doing today? We can't hear you at the moment. Uh, Nico is just looking for your story, the Bitcoin overlay. We can hear you.

All right, guys. Yeah, how you doing?

Yeah, we're doing great.

All right, Nico, I love that.

We're making it work.

Well done. Love it.

Very cool. Have you got your book? Have you got your copy of the book yet, Sati, or are you still waiting on that?

I have not. I'm expecting it any day now, and I'm very excited. I've been loving the podcast and listening to excerpts from everybody's story, but I really want to get the physical copy to soak it all in. So I'm excited.

Do you think it's kind of ironic that we're all so excited by getting our hands on something physically? Because that's one of the criticisms often leveled at Bitcoin, that you can't touch it.

Well, you know, I think it's one of the beautiful things about Bitcoin, and it makes us, you know, appreciate the physical things even more, right?

Yeah, both can coexist, right? We're physical beings with,

I mean,

minds and networks which operate elsewhere.

Yeah, I think that we really now live in 2 worlds, you know, the world of bits and the world of atoms. And so I like to keep my money in the world of bits, but I love meatspace and the world of atoms, you know, for my life, right? So, but I think, you know, we exist in 2 worlds now, right?

Yeah, for sure, for sure. Great. We have another author waiting in the wings, Jonny. Hi there. We'll get chatting to you in a little bit. And let's try and bring in Will again, see if he's having fewer audio problems. Will, are you there? Will's occupied with Santa, I think. sunny California. So it's a no from him. But, um, you just get back to you, uh, Sati, uh, what else is, is going on for you writing-wise? Is there any, um, projects on the horizon that you're working on? Have you been inspired to write more fiction?

I, I have actually. Um, I'm kind of working on a project that sort of like is connected to the Bitcoin overlay a little bit. Um, It's about this retired Air Force pilot who buys a private jet and shuttles people around the world for Bitcoin. And he doesn't ask any questions, doesn't care where you're going, just takes people from point A to point B. And you can only pay in Bitcoin. And there's all these various adventures and things he gets involved in. And it's sort of kind of connected to the Bitcoin overlay, or I guess honestly— Talking to you, Philip, on our podcast sort of sparked that idea in me. I mean, I had the idea, but I, you know, started to actually kind of mess around with it. So, um, you know, getting published in this book is a nice, like, uh, confidence builder. Like, yeah, I should do more of this because, um, there's just not enough of it in Bitcoin. I mean, I love Bitcoin, but I, you know, I, I can only talk about macroeconomics for so long. You know, I like stories. And I like to use my imagination, and Bitcoin really brings that out in me.

Yeah, that's great. I completely agree. That's, you know, what the project's all about. So yeah, good to know that that's what's keeping us all excited. Great. Well, stick around, Sati, because we'll be chatting with Yoni. So if you want to chip in, then please do and hang out with us. we'll be able to chat a bit more. All right, let's bring in—

I'm going to put myself on mute.

Got it. Let's bring in another Bitcoin superstar, Mr. Jonny Appleberg. Welcome to the launch of 21 Futures, Tales from the Time Chain. Great to have you with us.

Thank you so much for having me. Look

at the atmospheric background you got there.

Right,

we like it. And Niko, showing your story and that great artwork.

Um, I don't have my own copy yet. Very, very much looking forward to it.

Soon,

soon, soon.

Yeah, we were just talking about the physicalness of the books, and I just wanted to say, like, there is something here. Like, this is a platform of its own. Like, you don't need any other additional infrastructure to be able to enjoy this. And right, it's, it's just something tangible, something different.

Yeah, I, I must say books are some of the most fundamental technologies that we have in society. Just, um, I mean, it's mind-boggling if you really think about what books really are. Like, it's, it's the medium for, for written language, and written language in itself is, is just— if you study how written language came about, uh, you'd be surprised how difficult that, that was for human beings. I mean, that was a process that took thousands of years to develop.

And it's still so new, right? I mean, it's— yeah, yeah, in terms of human history, it's still in its infancy. And yeah, now it's gone digital, but there's still so much value in like a physical book. It's—

Yeah, and exactly. So books became the medium for written language, and books are now, uh, a technology for people to put their thoughts in a vehicle that can go through time and space. I think it's mind-blowing just that we have books, and I don't think they're ever going out of fashion.

I mean, yeah. I agree. There's been a lot of up and down with, you know, ebooks had their sort of golden age, and people thought, oh, they're going to take over. And during COVID especially, like physical books really came back with a bang and like increased in sales. And, and now, you know, another thing I like about physical books is you can lend them to people. It's so much more valuable saying, here's the thing, here's a, you know, all of the ideas are encapsulated or encased within this physical thing. You know, you can lend things on Kindle, right? You can say, oh, I'll lend this to my family or my You know, my friends, if they're set up on your account, but it's not the same value as saying, here's a book. Whenever a friend gives me a book, physical book, it jumps straight to the top of the queue. I've got a reading list of like hundreds of books I should be reading and they just cuts the line, goes straight to the top. So.

I know the feeling.

Yeah. Sorry, did you want to? Yeah, let's carry on chatting about books.

I'm just happy to be in the presence of other book lovers. It's not every day that you can be.

Are you a big collector of books, Niko?

I am. Do you have—

sorry, I'm asking both of you. I just wanted to bring Niko in as well because he's been a bit of an observer.

But yeah, I mean, tsundoku is the practice of stacking books without intention of reading them. So that's, that's pretty much what I do. I mean, I see that it all begins with a library. That's what I like to say. So it's good to have that library ready when somebody is ready to read those.

Yeah, and it's nice to be able to build the library now because going back to our chat about a history of writing and, you know, books were luxury items until very, very, very recently, and they still are in some countries. So it's great that, you know, people can

Yeah, in the grand scheme of things, books are a recent invention. And just to have the privilege to hold a physical thing with the ideas of another person, like having access to the most brilliant minds that have ever roamed the planet. Fascinating. I am. I mean, you know, the just holding a physical book, the smell of it, the how the pages feel between your fingers and just being able to go back and forth. It's a marvel of a technology. It really is.

100%. Sati, if you're still there, have you got anything to add? You're a big physical book collector. What do you think about physical versus digital books?

Yeah, absolutely. I love— I really do love audiobooks as well, but I— even when I do the audiobook, I like to buy a physical copy of the book. There is just something about it. And I don't know, it's just— I learned something recently that kind of like came to this. I thought it was interesting. I just learned about the, uh, you know, the Phoenicians, and they, you know, created the phonetic alphabet, and that, you know, the Greeks eventually adopted it, and we now use it. And it kind of occurred to me that, like, written language— or the alphabet, I should say— was like the first time humanity, um, adopted like an open decentralized protocol of sorts, right? Like, kind of like mirrors Bitcoin a little bit, and that like You know, they, they were able to communicate, but then all these knock-on effects of that, you know, physical books and writing and stuff that, you know, have now created this world around us. And, um, we could have had no idea when people were first adopting that, you know, thousands of years or hundreds of years ago, whatever it was.

Yeah, interesting thoughts. We're, we're in danger of getting deep here, aren't we? We're going to be chatting about, um, you know, the history of language.

That never happens with Bitcoiners.

2021 pasts, not 2021 futures.

But Ioni, I like, uh, I really loved your episode of the podcast, um, just listening to you speak. You had quite an interesting story, and I'm very excited to, um, I need to read your other book, Abundance Through Scarcity. I'm really, I'm really interested in that, but I'm also very interested to read your short, your short story.

Please do. I would love to hear your thoughts.

Can I just say something related to those? Because I was editing both Jonny's Abundance Through Scarcity, which is the nonfiction book, and Jonny's fiction story. And Jonny is a wonderful fiction writer and should write more of this stuff because it's— the story is really good. Not that Abundance Through Scarcity is not good, But you can check both and let me know if you agree or disagree. Which, which one should you only focus on more?

Thank you so much for saying that.

Yeah, will do. Yeah, I'm excited that there's— to know that there's 21 other or 20 other people out there that are excited about Bitcoin and fiction besides myself. And I'm, I'm really happy. When I saw the original tweet for this, I got so excited. That someone was doing this and putting this together. So, you know, congrats guys on making this happen.

Yeah, absolutely, 100%. Philip and Niko, the work that you've been doing, it's wonderful. I'm so grateful that you're doing what you're doing.

Thanks for saying that. I really feel like it might sound cheesy to say, but it's just the beginning. I feel like this is 1% of what the project is and what, you know, we're capable of. So it's very cool to be at this stage and have the book ready and, you know, people buying it and enjoying it, holding it in their hands, passing it around. But yeah, we're going places.

Yeah, it does feel like it's the beginning of something. I love it.

Yeah, great. Um, Sati, we want to bring in, uh, Karl Andrews, who's another one of the authors the book. Um, so perhaps do you want to tell everyone where they can find you online, or, or do you want to plug anything before you leave?

Um, yeah, please find me @satillionaire21 on Twitter. Um, and, uh, yeah, look out for more fiction and hopefully some movies. I know you guys are talking about some short films and stuff, um, so I'd like to get in on that a little bit as well, like some fiction short films. Related to Bitcoin, but yeah, lots of stuff coming next year. Love to meet everybody, and peace. Thanks for having me, guys.

Thanks so much for coming on the launch stream. All right, see you then, Satelline.

And just a quick reminder to everybody: help us get more views and win a book while you do it. So go to our Twitter or our X, follow us, and retweet the stream. And you can win one of these. We raffle out 5 of these by Christmas, so you have time, so do it.

Great. All right, well, after we, um, speak to, to Carl and finish speaking with Jonny, then we'll give you all the details of the, of the giveaway and talk a little bit more about the future of 21 Futures. Sorry, Jonny, did you want to chip in?

Is there going to be a copy of 21 Futures signed by all the 21 authors. Are we going to arrange that?

That is certainly my hope. I have the— this is the only copy of the first, first ever manuscript print with all the mistakes. I want this, uh, signed by everybody, hopefully, and put it in my collection.

We should have 21 copies signed by all 21 authors as a limited kind of thing.

That would be cool.

It would, wouldn't it? It would also be very difficult to arrange.

Yeah, and basically we would have to ship all the copies around the world a couple of times.

Maybe we could have a 21 Futures physical space, a museum or some kind of experience Just everything, 20, everything is 21. So you're greeted 21 times and you get 21 versions of the signed book.

But I'm babbling. And like a lot of the authors are going to events, right? And meetups and conferences. So it's a nice little treasure hunt. Just bring your copy and hunt down the authors and make your own.

Yeah, I like that.

I'll be signing it soon for sure. Let's bring in Carl Andrews. Carl, welcome to the launch. Another one of the authors in our great book. Welcome. I'm not sure everyone can hear you. No, we can't hear you at the moment. Sometimes it can be a problem if you go to your audio settings, turn off echo cancellation. That can be one of the the issues with this streaming platform. But while you try and figure out your, your audio settings— headphones sometimes help as well— Niko is going to show everyone the artwork and the title page for your great story. It wouldn't be a launch stream if there wasn't some kind of technological issues. Yeah, no problem. Perhaps we'll— great. All right, Niko's just showing some of Carl's story, Panama One, with a very tall tower. That's what Panama One is. And yeah, it's one of the stories which I think is probably based in a reality closest to to ours. There are some of the stories which are more like near futures or a bit more realistic. Jonny, your story is a distant past.

Am I the only one? I can imagine it would be.

Uh, we do have another— In a fantasy setting.

In, in the book, uh, yeah, I think you're one of a kind. We do have another anonymous story that we may be publishing on the website too. That's part of our future plans, is to put out more fiction online.

Interesting, interesting.

Yeah, actually, that, that was supposed to be on the book before you came in, so, uh, Jonny was a bit of a last-minute addition, and I'm glad that you did decide to, to write something for this. And, and as it happens, it is funnily enough very similar to the one that we were going to So, it's okay.

So, the story was this. I was working on my subsequent book, Hyperconnectivity, and for Hyperconnectivity, I wanted to have a fictional prologue and a fictional epilogue. And this was sort of like— I had a first draft to this story as the intro to that book. And you had already asked me if I wanted to contribute to 21 Futures, and I, I just thought that, no, that's too big a project for me at this point in time. And it's been, it's been a while since I tried writing any fiction. But as I, as I sat down and actually started working with this story and it sort of came alive for me, I desperately wanted to be part of the project and I'm so happy that I am now.

Yeah, the excitement has grown the closer we get to publication and I was sort of playing it cool the first, you know, this is just like let's tick off the stages of this project and let's get to to putting the book out. And I never felt like, oh, when I have the book, it's going to be— that's it, that's the exciting thing.

But that's the start point.

I think having all the authors getting excited about it and showing how many people are keen on spreading the word about this project has made me more excited about it.

Yeah, for sure.

Great. Okay, let's try bringing Karl in again. Hello. I think you're still struggling with microphone, uh, issues. Such a shame. Um, I'm not sure what to suggest. I think, uh, for me, you're Restream is that the streaming software is, is just showing the camera and no audio option. So it might be permissions, uh, based, but yeah, it's not picking up any microphone for you. So yeah, try, uh, don't know, re-login to, to the stream and it might ask you to, to select, you know, allow Microphone audio settings. Feel free to just type some comments as well, and we'll show them on the screen if you want to say something and not be muted. Sorry, try and— let's try and fix this. And it's kind of ironic that our authors are being muzzled rather than given a megaphone to shout about this amazing book. Let's talk a little bit about the future of the project. Um, Jonny, if you're okay to stick around, what would— where do you see this project going? What would keep you excited about 21 Futures after the launch of this physical book?

Also a fascinating question. As, as you said, um, Phil, I think that This feels like the, like the beginning of something bigger. This is not just a one-time publication, a one-time thing. I think it feels like there's some subtext to this. There's, there's going to be more here. And I think that the, the branding and the ideas, the, uh, the whole concept is— it has the potential to grow Quite a lot, and I think we you could approach this from several angles: from publishing stories online and to more books and also podcasts. And of course, we need to see some of these stories become films. And I wouldn't, I wouldn't. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the authors in 21 Futures start to build worlds, literary worlds. If someone has found an idea, a story that they are diving deeper into after this project now, I think it would be fascinating to see if someone is actually starting to build worlds around their ideas, their stories, and we could see maybe some longer stories, longer fiction stories based on these ones that you have published now.

Yeah, sorry, go ahead, go ahead. I just wanted to jump in really quickly because I was nodding along there and thinking about visualizing this project and conceptualizing it. And listening to you speak, it's like a sort of 3-dimensional multiverse. I don't really like saying multiverse because I think Marvel is stupid, but this is a multiverse. It can go horizontally. We're talking about more media like podcasts, like Film, like, um, you know, different versions of books, audio. And it can go vertically as well. Like, these stories can be longer, can be deeper, can be explored in other ways. And then the third dimension is, is like other, uh, themes, you know. In future versions of this, this book or this project, we may explore particular themes, which is sort of splintering off into even more directions. So yeah, I just wanted to mention that it's like a 3-dimensional fractal universe.

Yeah, I love the concept. It would be a shame to see this not grow into something a lot, lot bigger.

Yeah, I think it's inevitable because people, we know, already know people love stories. People love movies, TV shows, fiction books. Great stories. And I think one thing at least I've been struggling with as a Bitcoiner is to try to help my, my family and friends understand it. And it doesn't really work when you give them a nonfiction book about Austrian economics and, you know, gets really technical and boring really quickly. So this is our attempt to sort of try to garner a wider audience and tap into that wider consciousness of humankind via these high-stakes human interest stories. And I think it's going to really resonate. And I think people will find when they read the book that, you know, Bitcoin takes a backstage. It's almost not even mentioned in some, some of the stories. That's not the main point. It's not like evangelism that is very off-putting to a lot of people. I feel very confident that this book is something that you can finally gift to anybody who is just simply interested in good stories. And that's a roundabout way to introduce these libertarian and Bitcoin ideas, at least bring them closer to people where people are. And that being said, we are raffling 5 of these out. So follow ConsenSys Network on Twitter and retweet this stream. And you're in for a chance to win one of these.

True.

Some sly roundabout way to impart the Bitcoin fiction stories into the minds of the masses.

Yeah, from my perspective, like, we don't learn about things unless we have a reason to. Like, as adults, we all have many things going on, and we're not sitting in the schoolroom being told all of this. And stories are what create the desire to learn more. So if you read a great story about, you know, the 17th century plague, or if you read a great story about a place that you haven't been to, or a kind of event which happened, you're right there. You're like, oh, I need to know more about this, and because it's affected people. 'Cause it's affected these characters and it's affected you through them. And, you know, I think if I was reading this book for the first time, I would be Googling a few things and, you know, just it would be piquing my interest of like, oh, what does that mean? You know, could that actually happen? Or is this, you know, it's not like you need to do that to understand the stories. It's that it gives you the impetus to learn a bit more. Yeah. You've now got a reason to. So that's what I hope, you know, people are gonna get from this.

And I think Yoni's, uh, story specifically is a great case example of this because it doesn't mention Bitcoin at all. I believe it's more about the spiritual and spiritual awakening of humankind to the idea that we can be masterless, we can be free. It's like a almost like psychedelic renaissance sort of thing. So that's really refreshing to see. It's not even, you know, directly Bitcoin related. I mean, Bitcoin is just on the back there. So Bitcoin is just a freedom tool, whereas same as psychedelics, I guess. What's your take on that, Jonny?

I love how you understand my story. I love how you frame it. Thank you for that. And sure, um, I mean, I agree with everything that you're saying. Uh, I love allegorical fiction for a reason. So my story is an allegory. It's— I, as you say, I don't, I don't mention Bitcoin once. And also, what I'm most proud about is that I managed to hide the idea that Bitcoin is an economic psychedelic. Bitcoin has the effect on the economy, has a very similar effect on the economy that psychedelics do on the human mind. It exposes the flaws and it introduces plasticity and entropy. And as, as an— and I, I really, I really like allegories, um, because they, they're a great tool to, uh, to symbolize broader abstract concepts, and they're great, they're a great tool to explain complex issues and explore philosophical questions. So I find that format very exciting when writing. So, and I'm actually working on a new story now as we speak, another allegory about Bitcoin. I'm not sure where it's going at this point, but it's a bigger project than the one I published for 21 Futures, bigger than my contribution for 21 Futures. And I'm very excited about this new project as well.

That sounds great. I'll be definitely keeping my eye out for that for any My ear out for any news on it. Yeah, thanks so much for joining us, Jonny. Is there any anything that you want to mention before you go? Any plugs? Any place people can find you online?

Well, I'm on Twitter X as I O N I A P P E L B E R G, and of course my. Check out my YouTube channel, Yoni Appleberg, there as well. And for those of you who haven't yet gotten your Christmas presents, your Christmas gifts, get a copy of 21 Futures and Abundance Through Scarcity, of course. And I would love to see as many of you as possible in Madeira for— oh, there you go. Look at that. Such a beautiful book. I'm very happy with it. And I would love to see as many of you as possible in Madeira for Bitcoin Atlantis. Um, I'll be giving a talk, and I'm looking forward to seeing all my friends again.

That's great. I'm gonna be there, Jonny.

Oh, you are?

It's gonna be my first ever Bitcoin thing, conference.

That'll be awesome.

meetup. So yeah, I'm really excited about that.

Philip, you're coming. That makes me so happy. I really want to hang out with you. That's fantastic. Great news.

All right, guys, I'll catch you there. Yeah, thanks very much for coming on the launch and good luck with your future projects. And we'll catch you in Madeira.

See you, Johnny.

See you guys.

So, Niko, let's wrap this thing up. Um, thanks so much to all of our authors who have, uh, come on and said hi, and thanks to everyone who's been watching as well. Uh, if you don't know by now, you should do. Go to 21futures.com to learn about the project. Buy the book at bitcoinbook.shop and loads of other great books on similar topics. Bitcoin publisher Consensus network. Niko, anything else to tell everyone before we leave?

I think that's pretty much, much everything. Oh yeah, of course, check out our 21 Futures podcast, which is hosted by Philip here. We have, I think, 15 episodes or 16 episodes or so in the bank in the playlist. So definitely check that out if you want to learn more about the authors and their stories and and hear a bit of spoilers from them. And then of course you can get this now. If you order now, you can probably still get it for Christmas, but no promises. But you can get it from Amazon and you can get it from bitcoinbook.shop. Or if you don't want to spend your precious sats, you can take part in our giveaway. We're going to give 5 of these away by Christmas. Won't make it until— I mean, you won't get it for Christmas, Because that's how long we ran the campaign. But if you want it for free, all you have to do is follow us on Twitter, KonsensusN, Konsensus with a K and N at the end, and retweet the link to this stream so that people can watch it later. And then you are entered into the raffle of 5 of these copies.

That's great. Thanks so much for joining us, everyone. It's been fun hosting this. And after all of those podcasts and this book launch, I think I'm going to take a little rest.

Well deserved.

And take some time to enjoy the book. If you want to get in touch with me, there are many ways to do that. Yeah, I don't think I've given out— if you want to check out my author website, it's my name, philipcharter.com. There's various ways to get in touch through that, or you can find me via English Writing Coach, all one word. If you Google that, you'll find my YouTube and LinkedIn and other, uh, other social media. English Writing Coach or mynamephilipcharter.com. All right, so I hope your future turns into a positive one. Thanks for tuning in, and we really hope you enjoy the book.

Yep. Thanks everybody. And thanks Phil. And whoever doesn't know it already, I talk about this all the time, but it was really one of the best investments that I made when, when I joined up with, with Phil and his class to, to make me a better writer. So that was really valuable. And that's how we got started with this project in the first place. So that's the origin story. Go check out our respective episodes as well if you want to learn more about that. And if you want to publish a book, you know where to find me, Omnifin, double N at the end, both on Telegram and on Twitter. You can do any part of the publication process for you. Just tailor to your needs and look forward to more cool stuff like this. This is certainly not going to be the last. It is the first of many, I hope. And I'm really bullish to see what you guys think about—

Maybe we could, maybe we could double it and do 42 features next time. Yeah,

maybe.

He's like, please God, no, 42 pieces of artwork. No. All right, um, that's it everyone. Thanks for joining. And, uh, yeah, check out ConsenSys Network and, uh, find all the authors and Niko's information there. So see you around and thanks for joining.